Does any one get an error when trying to save a drawing to PDF that has views that are set to shaded or views that have sketch pictures in them? I keep on getting a "PDF Export : Unhandled Exception" error message.

"The error can be reproduced on 32 bit systems when running low on memory. The generation of a high quality PDF with shaded views can consume as much 500 Mb of memory. If the Virtual Bytes is at 1.4Gb or more before attempting to save the PDF, then this error will show when saving a PDF."

I think that SolidWorks still has memory issues on 64 bit systems. We've been on 64 bit systems for a number of years now, and we still see strange SolidWorks behavior after working for quite a while that disappears when we reboot the system. I've only got 8 GB of RAM, but Windows often reports that I'm not getting close to using it all before I reboot, so I suspect that there is more going on than meets the eye.

I don't know if you are aware of the GDU limitation in Windows 7. It is set to 10k by default although allegedly it can be increased...Am about to play with that. I have read that it can be increased to 16384, and possibly 65536.

Users here often 'run out of system resources' with still 50% RAM available which points to the GDU limit being maxed out. We often have to reboot at this stage, losing work. This happens to many or our users several times per week.

Users typically have 12GB RAM, a few 16GB and we still have problems.

GPU wise, we find a Quadro 2000 (1GB) about sufficient, although I would like to see 2GB GPU's as a minimum just to take other potential problems out of the equation.

In Win 8, the GDU default has been increased to 65535!! Says a lot, I think.

We are working with very large, complex assemblies with thousands of parts, references, constraints etc.

So I guess we are beyond pushing SW & its respective Win 7 defaults to the max.

Yes, I'm aware of the GDI limit and have GDI Objects as one of the columns in my Task Manager. I have only very rarely found myself pushing up against the 10K limit. But I'm not so sure that the Task Manger is showing me all the GDI Objects in use, just as I'm not so sure that it is showing me all of the RAM in use.

Download Process Explorer (procexp.exe). It is free and part of the Windows SysInternal Suite of programs. I use it a great deal as it provides more information than Task Manager. You can configure the columns to view just what you want incl' GDI & User Objects. Shame it doesn't give you a tally though. Also VMMAP to give you a true view of what your RAM and swap are doing and where.

I've had another look at this user with the PDF printing problem and believe it's the Ricoh driver. He has the PCL5e driver which looks limited for a Aficio 8200DN and I've requested our IT bods to change it to the PCL6 Universal. I have the PCL6 Univ installed and haven't encountered this problem.